Warrior Souls
by amacma
Summary: Jack is sent to interrogate Logan, who got locked up for slaying people out of Stryker's old team. But what happens when Rogue absorbs Jack? Set after: 24 S7 / X3
1. IN A WHITE COATED CELL

IN A WHITE COATED CELL

.

.

.

Logan watched the man who entered his cell with dislike. He had never seen that one before - they had changed the interrogator once again, he mused, slightly smiling. The last five of them hadn't had much success to be proud of. They had been asking the same questions, over and over again, had tried numerous ways of torturing him - obviously they hadn't even been so sure how they could cause him pain at all. He had tried to stay silent when they used the worst and had screamed when they had done things to him that almost didn't matter at all.  
But somehow, in the end, they had found a way how to strike him. And worst of all: He hadn't been able to hide that this method worked out.

In the middle of the room there was a bright red line, painted onto the floor, onto the walls, even the ceiling. No visitors beyond this line. No things beyond this line. Except the prisoner whose wrists were bound to thick metal girders coming out of the back wall. They left him barely and space to move at all.

Logan watched the new interrogator taking a seat opposite to him, 6 feet away from the red line which he wasn't allowed to cross. He didn't look like all the others who had come. He was a bit older than those young agents who had tried to earn respect of their superiors by finding new, creative ways how to get some information out of him.  
This one was different. He also didn't have anything with him, no single piece of paper, nothing to write, no file to hide behind. He had only sat down in silence and now he was starring at him.

Logan swore to himself that he wouldn't be the first to talk. He could play this game forever, while that man sized him up from head to toe.

After a while, he gave up staring and instead let his view wander through the room. It was a sterile white, looking more like a hospital room than a prison cell in a highest-security holding facility. In one corner, there was a toilet and the remains of a washbowl, which had been slain into pieces. In the other corner a blanket on the floor.  
No chair. No table. Not even a bed.  
The walls were coated with porcelain, but the surface looked like it had been scratched away with knives in various places.  
An uneasy feeling crept up his back, as he saw this room. He had been in such a room before. It was inhumane to keep somebody in a place like this… but what could he do against reality of how to keep up homeland security?

He stood up, walking through the room. They had told him that this man was a beast. He didn't exactly look like one. His features were earnest and angry, the rest of his body well built and strong, but actually just saw a prisoner in shackles.  
In the corner of his eyes, he kept watching him, while he examined the red painted line. He sensed how that prisoner got nervous as he approached that line. He had been told that it wouldn't be a big deal to overstep it, but for his prisoner it was a big deal to watch that.

Jack stretched out his hand and held it into what the others called the magnetic barrier. Somehow, the beast was held back by this installation. He merely felt a little prickle as he stood there.

Logan watched his interrogator play with the barrier. He had turned his back to him, confident that the shackles were strong enough to keep him where he was. He stretched out his hand though that invisible barrier, several times, before he stepped into it, out again and finally into his half of that cell.  
No other interrogator had ever done that before, upon the first meeting.

 _Xavier, I need you help - who is this guy?_ Logan prayed that the professor would hear him, wherever he was.

He did. _He's a warrior, like you._

He was so glad that the professor answered his call. This voice was what had kept him sane throughout the past weeks in here. _Is he here to help me?_

 _No, he's here to question you. He has fought many wars, just like you, Logan. He knows how to hurt people, that's why they brought him here. He is different from all others._

A cold shiver ran down his spine. This man hurts people. An inquisitor.  
Logan followed every one of his moves. He fought the wish to ask the guy how the barrier felt like, for an ordinary human being. To him, the strong magnetic field felt like hell.

Jack didn't feel that much of it. Outside, they had taken every smallest piece of metal from him, before letting him enter this Faraday cage. This magnetic barrier was powered by superconductive coils and had it's own high tension supply line. He turned around and his eyes met those of his prisoners. Was that envy, in this man's view? About being able to cross this invisible line so easily?

He sighed and went a step closer, standing between the prisoner and the red line. „I've never seen something like that before.", he remarked, „that field thing.", still playing with the soft tickle that it left in his skin, as he ran his hand through it.

No answer came from that guy.  
The shackles were mounted so low that he could only kneel or crouch. Jack looked down on him. He didn't like this position for the interrogation that he was told to perform. That guy was a driven fighter. He would never talk to an inferior person, looking down on him.  
He _knew_ those situations, though he tried not to think back to the last time when he had been in that guy's position.

Jack went out of the barrier again and grabbed the chair to slide it closer. As he wanted to slide it over the barrier, it was held back like from an invisible force. _Damn it,_ he cursed and tried once more, before let it be where it was, right behind the line. _Ain't that a fuckin' plastic chair?_ , he cursed, more to himself that aloud, as he went over the red line again to sit down.

„I guess the red paint contains some iron.", Logan spoke.

Jack looked up. Their first words. At least a start was made. He slid the chair a little bit back from the red line. „If you're right… that's a really impressive thing.", he said, nodding to the red line and sat down, having turned the backrest of the chair towards the prisoner.

„How do you experience that?", Jack asked him, again playing with the tickle in his hand as he let it cross the barrier.

„It's like… an electro-magnet on the scrap yard… trying to crush one."

Jack pulled his hand back. Although he didn't feel anything but a tickle, he wasn't so sure any more what this cell could do to one's body. He leant onto the backrest of the chair. „So why do they keep here?"

„I guess they already told you.", Logan answered. „Or did you come here for fun? Own sadistic pleasure? Or trying to save money for the circus by gettin' a free freak show?"

„I just read the file they gave me.", Jack spoke. „So why are you here?"

„Doesn't it say it?" Logan was tired of the interrogation already. It could have been interesting, he had thought in the beginning, with this new interrogator. But now that man was drifting back into the old, usual scheme of asking inquisitive questions.

„You know… files contain a lot of shit.", Jack said. Once, he had tried to get a hold of his own file and read it- but he had stopped three pages into it, driven to a bottle of Whiskey because of the rage it had brought over him. Lies. Factoids.  
They had given him the file of that ‚Logan'-guy over there. It said that he was an uncontrolled animal on a killing spree, a rabid wolf that had chosen to unleash his rage against military organizations and government officials.

„Really?" Logan angrily spat back. „So what kinda shit does your file say about you?"

Jack answered with a smile. „You have no idea, pal."

Logan had noticed the flicker in his interrogator's eyes. Now it was getting interesting. Even though he had given him an evasive answer, there was something behind this.  
After weeks of sitting here in almost complete solitude, he chose to take. his chances in this cat and mouse game. „You really expect me to answer your questions… and you don't even tell me your name?"

„It's not important who I am.", Jack answered. He sensed that this interrogation was about to get going. A little give-and-get game. „Names don't matter in the end."

„I thought you wanted to know some names… like all the others who asked me questions?"

„No", Jack took a deep breath, „I want to know _why you are here_." He looked into the other's brown eyes. „I've never met anyone of your kind. Your kind kept out of our shit, we kept out of yours. But you seem to have crossed that line."

Logan eyed him closely. „Do you wanna hear a ‚yes I did'? A confession?", he laughed.

Jack shook his head slowly. „We're way past the point of a confession.", he remarked. What was included in his file made a confession unnecessary. _An animal on a killing spree._ That's what this file said. „Did you really kill them for no reason?"

Logan refrained from shaking his head. „Did _you_ ever kill without a reason?", he asked back. It was a shot in the dark. But according to Xavier, this man had fought wars. There had to be blood on his hands, too.  
From his position he saw the large scar on the back of his right hand. Faint marks of scars that some fights had left in his face. There was a story behind them, for sure.

Jack took a deep breath and thoughtfully stared at the ground in between them. „I hope I haven't. But I can't tell for sure.", he murmured. Too much collateral damage had happened.

Logan instinctively knew that he had spoken the truth. „That's also true for me.", he added: „does that answer your question?"

Jack nodded his head yes.  
He sat there and mused about the answer for a moment. They had all the time in the world. There was no need to hurry that investigation.  
As he moved his hand he felt the tickle of the magnetic field again, even though he was ten inches away. It was weaker, but still there.  
Jack glanced at the earnest features of the prisoner, once more. „I never shined in physics, and out there they told me not to care too much about it…", he murmured, „don't you sense that magnetic field over there, too?"

No answer.

They had put him under constant pain, he guessed. Now he could put the pieces all together - the uncomfortable position that he was in, and the way how the shackles around his forearms strangely cut into his flesh. That was reason for the sweat pearls on his skin. His whole body was pushed to the back wall of this cell by the magnetic field.

Logan watched the interrogator stand up and leave the room. There was a little window in the only door, but the inner side was mirrored, so he couldn't see what was going on in the room outside this cell.

As suddenly the force was gone.  
He almost collapsed into the shackles, after the magnetic field got deactivated. They had never done that before. In the corner of his view, he saw the door getting opened up again, voices, arguing on the outside about what to do next.

Jack slammed the door shut behind him and went back to the chair. This time he took it and slid it over the red line, effortlessly. The cage was deactivated.

He sat down right in front of Logan, looking directly into his eyes. „I am here to _talk_."

Logan was thrilled by the fact that this man didn't care too much about security - and that the barrier that had held him against this wall was suddenly gone. He rattled at the two shackles which were fixed to massive girders coming out of the back wall. „Aren't you afraid you're not gonna make it out of this room alive?" Slowly he released the claws of his left hand. Since the magnetic field was gone he could bare his claws for the first time without the field painfully trying to bend them.

Jack glanced at them. He had never seen something like that before. That guy's hands were mounted into strong shackles. He couldn't break them. There was nothing to fear. But still…  
„I had to promise them on the outside on thing, because of the missing field", he sighed and took out a hand grenade. Carefully he removed the pin and held the latch tight. „The moment they activate the field again this thing will get pushed right towards. They said you wouldn't survive this."

Logan looked at the grenade. „I don't know. Never tried."

Jack shrugged and settled back into the seat, with his grenade. „Now we can talk."

„What do you wanna know?" For the first time at all, Logan was able to sit down in a more comfortable position. He felt like he owed him an answer for this.

„You got a hold of that weapon X file.", Jack remarked, „How far do you want to take this, I mean the duty roster as you to-kill list? Even to the garbage man? The cleaning lady?"

„I haven't decided yet.", he answered. „But at this point: it still feels like the right thing to do."

„Get it.", Jack nodded. „Two hours ago I didn't even know that our government ran such a program. But I read that you volunteered."

„Malicious deception."

„Get it.", Jack nodded again. „It's still murder. You need to fit your revenge into the laws of this country."

Logan felt his anger rising. Such a nonsense. „There is no _law_ beyond a certain level.", he hissed. „You really said _law_ , huh? Put me in court. Get me out of this cell. Let me have a visitor, a bed… parole. But first of all stop asking questions that have nothing to do with what I did to Stryker's men."

„Point taken.", Jack remarked and picked up the pin of the grenade from the floor. „Have I asked you such a question?", he answered it himself, „I guess not."

„Eventually you will. Isn't that why you're here?" The tension between them rose.

„Yes.", Jack hesitatingly answered. He wasn't happy with where this conversation was going. But he wanted to take this further. This guy wasn't suicidal, Jack could see it. And he wasn't uncontrollable, like his file said.  
Slowly he stretched out his hand with the grenade in it, bringing it right on top of the prisoner's clenched fist. „But you're gotta have to kill us both if you don't wanna talk to me." He'd only have to release his claws and the grenade would drop as the hand holding it got stabbed, the people would activate the field in that very moment, and the blast would take them both out.

Logan wondered, what to do. For a moment he wanted to release his claws, only a little bit, but he decided not to take this any further. He took a deep breath, then another one, before saying: „What you're doing here… that's not how civilized people _talk_."

 _Xavier, this guy is good. He's strange. Would he really take us both out?_

 _No, but he likes to takes risks. He knew you wouldn't take it further._

Xavier's judgement almost felt like an insult. He _knew_ that he wouldn't take it further? Was he really that kind of predictable?

Jack pulled back his hand with the grenade. He even put the pin back in. „Then let's talk."


	2. SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS LAW

SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS LAW

.

Thoughtfully, Jack leant against the frame of the large windows in his living room. The past evenings, whenever Kim and Teri hadn't been here to visit him, he had opened up a bottle of beer to get his thoughts to a rest and to kill the loneliness that come back into his life. Yesterday, and the day before, his mind had been filled with so many thoughts that he hadn't even thought of a beer. But today it was different. What he had seen today made the difference.

It had been the third day of interrogating the ‚beast', how the guards called him. The more time he spent with him, the less he believed that man to be a beast, how even the Colonel had called him. It was no wonder why all his inferiors thought the same.

I need to read his file. I need to know who I'm up against. It's not a who you are up against, Captain, it's a what. The colonel answered, This is not a human being. Reluctantly he handed him the file. That's all we got. Jack opened up the file, it's outside plainly said ‚the wolverine'. He leafed to the first page with a picture, that showed a black haired, strong, young man. Looks like a human being to me, Jack commented. Don't let the picture fool you. This is an animal. You should have seen what he's capable of. Jack leafed through the pages. The main part of this file was old stuff, it went as far back as WWII, under the name of James ‚Logan' Howlett.

As Jack looked out of the window and sipped at his beer, he thought about what to do next. Today he had gotten the ultimate proof, that this guy was human and nothing else. He felt like he couldn't go on with that interrogation. The colonel had invited him, because of his known past with interrogations. Actually the colonel had thought that he would be able to break that prisoner, either mentally or by pain, but neither had happened. They had tried numerous interrogation techniques - poison, shooting him, caging him and powering up that magnetic field until his metal coated bones would bend. The colonel had hoped that Jack Bauer, the most feared interrogator of all times would take this to the next level. I am biased, I shouldn't continue this, Jack thought, but he was way past the point where should have made that decision. He inadvertently had started to make friends with that guy. He had known on the very first sight that he would never be able to break him physically. There was nothing that this guy was afraid of, neither death nor pain. At the first day, he hadn't even bothered asking questions off the Colonel's list. On the second day, their conversation had continued, from one topic to the other, but again, none of the Colonel's questions. And then, today, he that guy had turned his whole world upside down.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
earlier, in the prison during interrogation

„What was that Malicious deception, that Stryker fooled you with?", Jack asked him, and for the first time in three days, his interrogation came back to it's original topic: why had this assassination happened.

Logan looked at the hand grenade in his interrogator's eyes. The pin was back in. A sign of trust, but not enough. This question was too personal to be answered without getting something in return. „What's your name?", he asked back.

Jack made the decision in that very moment. „I am Jack Bauer.", he answered, and knew that the Colonel out there was raging. No names, was what the Colonel had ordered, days ago. Up to now, he had kept to it. Nobody of them had told their prisoner any name. They all feared that they'd end up on his to-kill list, eventually, and they tried to make it as hard for him to track them down as possible.

„He ordered a guy to kill a person very dear to me.", Logan silently began. He trusted that man over there. But he wasn't sure how often that guy would return. Every time that he left, he heard the angry voice of that Colonel out there. They seemed to be arguing about this whole interrogation. Even if he wouldn't return - he actually wanted him to know his true reasons. „I didn't know by then that he had ordered this. He came to me and told me that he'd help me, that his treatment would give me the power to bring the killer down. He didn't keep his promise."

Jack hadn't expected to hear something personal like this. He just sat there and stared at the ground in between them, not knowing how to continue this interrogation. Logan's voice caught him in his thoughts-

„Jack?"

He looked up.

„What would you have done?" He knew that this man understood his reason. But he wanted to get it confirmed. „If you had held someone at gunpoint who had killed a loved one, huh? I guess you wouldn't have let them walk away." Although he had asked him a direct, personal question, Jack didn't even look at him. Logan watched him stand up, slowly, then he slid the chair back over the red line again and went over to the door.

He really needed to get out of here. This was getting too personal. Logan was breaking him - and not the other way round. He felt him stare at his back, and it was almost as intensive as if his claws were long enough to stab him from over there. It had been ten years - five of them in which he had really had it under control, those pictures. Now she was back: Nina.

Wordlessly Jack opened up the door and left.

Logan sat at his place, wondering what had happened. It didn't take long until the field was back on, pushing his bones back to the wall, and unfolding that immense pressure on him that nearly caused his chest to implode.

What have I done wrong, Xavier?, he thought.

Nothing. But you aren't the only one on earth who went through that, Logan, the soft voice answered to him.

So how did he did the same thing as I did?

Ask him, when he comes back.

No, you tell me! Why the hell isn't he in prison though he made just the same decision as I did, huh? Is this your goddamn picture of justice, like you always told us?

Xavier's voice stayed silent for a while. Calm down, Logan. Ask him when he comes back.

For the first time in weeks, he felt really lonely. The professor's voice had been there for him, patching him up after their tries to torture him, guiding him back to line, when he feared to snap. He didn't want to argue with the only friend he felt he still had.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
just outside the interrogation room

„Bauer! What the hell was that!?", the Colonel yelled at him and ripped the grenade out of Jack's hands. „This is meant to be an interrogation, and not an afternoon coffee party."

„It's a give and get.", Jack spat back at him, though he knew that the Colonel was right. He should have never let this come down to such a personal level. Especially not with this guy. And now even Nina's picture was all over his mind, the only thing he could really think of.

„You are here to ask questions.", the Colonel shouted, „Not to give away your name but to make him give us some names!"

„I think that's not gonna happen. He did the attack on Stryker's team alone, as you heard, and I have every reason to believe that. He tracked them down, one by one."

Angrily the Colonel looked at him. „So tell me, Mr. Jack Bauer, the glorious one to tell a monster his real name: what are you gonna do when that beast finally tracks you down and starts to ask you for our names?"

„That won't happen, Sir."

„You can never know. Read his file. We had him in 1943, in Vietnam and several other times. He always escaped."

Jack had enough of this. „You called me, Sir, to interrogate him. I'm not responsible for somebody else's fail in guarding him." And I gave him no reason, Jack thought, I gave him no reason to do anything to me. He had the chance, he didn't.

„Well, I'm not so sure, Captain, if that was a good idea to ask you to interrogate him. Right now you don't really live up to your reputation." He had wanted a bloody monster to interrogate the beast - Bauer's file had been promising. „When did you change that much?", he derogatorily remarked and left Jack standing there, alone, as he paced away.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
in the evening

Jack exactly knew when he changed that much. He took another gulp of the beer to stop his thoughts from going there, but it was already too late. Nina's face was replaced by Cheng's, just for a moment. He felt the pain come back. The helplessness. Quickly he went back into the kitchen to get something stronger. A couple of sleeping pills and a glass of Whiskey. That helped, most of the times.

Then he sat down on the sofa again, looking out into the dark.

There's no law beyond a certain point. A trial. A visitor. Something as simple as a bed. Something as simple as to stop the torture.

He knew exactly when he had changed so much that he didn't fit the Colonel's expectations any more. He had been at the exact same spot as his prisoner was now. Not a glimpse of hope ever to leave this place again, not a simple glimpse of hope to be treated in a fair way - knowing that the only way out of there was to escape.

The Colonel had made him the person that he had never wanted to become: Cheng. He couldn't do this. He couldn't go back there and do this. He couldn't stand to see this guy in chains, treated like an animal. Not after what he had been through.


	3. CROSSING A RED LINE

CROSSING A RED LINE

.

.

.

The guards had just completed their search for metal objects on Jack, before they'd allow him into the magnetic cage, even if though it would be turned off. He had already had his usual fight with the Colonel today, who had given him a new list of questions to ask.

Jack mused on the sheet of paper that he held in his hands. What does he need me for, then? When he tells me exactly what to ask? He himself could also ask the prisoner these questions, over the speaker.

Waiting three rooms before the airlock to the holding cell, Jack waited for the clearance to go over there. He was here early and they obviously needed some time to do… whatever. Waiting, he read the stupid list of questions once more. Every single one of these questions was aimed at getting some more information about other ones of his kind - mutants. Their hideouts. Logan would never answer that. What reason had he to give their names and hideouts away? Jack folded the piece of paper and put it in his trouser pocket. He didn't want to ask those questions and he wouldn't.

The door on his left opened up and two men came out, wearing a full ABC protection gear. Astounded Jack watched them as they took off their helmets and left the scene. He stood up and went into the adjacent room, one door closer to the holding cell. „Isn't that a little bit overprotective?", he asked the guard in there, referring to the body protection gear and the gas masks that those guards had worn. „And I go in there without anything on?"

The guard gave him the silent treatment. Jack was sure that he was instructed to do so, by the Colonel. „That's none of your concern."

Jack went one room closer to the holding cell. In here were the surveillance cameras. Five monitors showed every corner of the little white cell, in greatest detail. He watched their prisoner, sitting at the floor, in his usual position, arms cuffed into the unbreakable shackles. He didn't move and didn't rise his head. „Is he asleep?", Jack asked the guard.

„We are not sure.", the man answered. As he saw Jack walk over to the double doors to the cell, he quickly added „Captain, do not enter." A little pause, „yet."

Jack stepped back from the door „why?"

„The door is still locked."

„Why?", he asked again.

„The air inside the room is being cleared." As the guard answered, he saw on Jack's face that the third ‚why' was to follow, if he didn't serve him a better explanation. „Haven't you ever wondered how we get his hands into the shackles?"

Jack halted. Yes, he had thought about it, but at one point, he hadn't really cared. „How do you do it?"

„We're flooding the room with… an anesthetic."

Jack glanced at the guard. At the surveillance monitors. Back at the guard again. That little pause, before saying it was an ‚anesthetic', hat been just one part of a second too long to be believable. Murmuring okay, he turned away from the door and paced through the room. He felt the urge to interrogate not the prisoner but that guard over there to hear the truth. There was so much going on around here, around him, that the didn't know.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _meanwhile, in the manor_

Storm found a thoughtful professor, as she came to him. „What's going on?", she asked as she worriedly stepped in front of him, „One doesn't need to be able to read thoughts to see that something's wrong."

Charles Xavier looked up. „Indeed.", he remarked and moved his wheelchair away from the large window, over to her. „I cannot connect to Logan."

„Maybe he's asleep?" Storm tried to find an easy solution, most of the times there was an easy solution for every little problem. She knew that the professor had tried to keep track of Logan's moves after he had left their team two months ago, to take some time out.

„No, my dear." Charles smiled at her everlasting optimism, though it was a sad smile. „I'd sense it if he was asleep. I'd be able to connect to his dreams."

„He's a big boy. He can handle himself, Xavier", she sighed.

But she didn't know what Xavier knew. He had kept track of Logan all the time, but he hadn't told the others that Logan had been on a killing trip, neither had he told anyone that their brother in arms had been caught and lay in chains by now, in a government holding facility for delinquent mutants. Logan wouldn't want the others to know. He had insisted in getting out of there without their help and without endangering any one of them. Xavier had respected his wish. But now, he was worried. He took a deep breath and made the decision „We'll find him with Cerebro."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _In the holding cell_

Jack had waited another ten minutes before he received the clearance to cross the airlock into the cell. He had taken the time to examine the holding facility a bit closer. The airlock consisted of two thick metal doors - the inner one to complete the Faraday cage around the cell and the other one to complete the airlock system. That room in there was a hight tech facility, shielded perfectly from the outside. He considered the locks at the door unbreakable. A lot of electronic locks plus two conventional keys were used to keep their prisoner locked up.

The guards at the prison were damn afraid of him. Sitting at the plastic chair he examined the man opposite him. Why were they so afraid of him? Because of these claws? Both his arms were mounted into huge shackles and left him no inch to move his arms or hands. The file said that he had increased healing capabilities and could survive a bullet straight into his heart. That was for sure helpful - but not intimidating.

Although they had strictly forbidden to touch the prisoner, Jack couldn't help moving the chair another bit closer to the sleeping (or was he unconscious?) man. Just so close that he could kick him into the shin to wake up.

Nothing happened.

„Hey!" He kicked him into the shin once more - not to hurt him, but to wake him up because he didn't want forever to start their interrogation.

Logan slightly moved as his body came to life again. Weakly he raised his head, not abruptly like all the other times, when he woke from his nightmares. He slightly opened his eyes. Too bright. He blinked once and then he saw the legs of someone sitting in front of him. He looked up. Jack. Was that even his real name?

„Did you have a good sleep?" - he heard him ask. What a a sarcasm. Answering nothing, he straightened up and fought the nausea. He rarely ever felt this way. But today was an exception. „How long was I out?", he asked.

Jack shrugged. „I don't know. I've only been here for a few minutes."

Logan nodded his head. Bad idea. That made the nausea even worse.

„' you alright?" He saw that his prisoner wasn't in a very good shape. Whatever the ‚anesthetic' was, it definitely had served it's purpose.

„perfect.", Logan hissed back, derogatorily. He tensed his muscles and swore to himself that he wouldn't let it show how bad his condition was. They must have used a deadly concentration of the gas. It was a mere wonder that he had survived. So many people had died from this. Those pictures had gotten burned into his mind - remembering that was no pleasure.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _Cerebro_

„I have to tell you something, before you see this, Storm", Xavier began, as he reached out to take the helmet, „I've been connecting to Logan many times in the past months."

His start made her curious. Was there something bad to come? „..aaaand?", she asked.

„He didn't only take time off. He wanted to do certain things… like revenge, and… I couldn't convince him not to do that."

„Revenge for what?"

„He hasn't been born with adamantium-coated bones and claws."

Storm walked a few steps down the bridge into the Cerebro shpere. „I know. He said he didn't even know what caused that- only that Stryker had something to do with it."

Xavier nodded. „Yes, that's true. As he joined us again, half a year ago, we spent several sessions in here to untangle the barriers causing his complete loss of memory." He didn't know how else to say it: „He didn't like what he saw."

„Why?", Storm watched him closely, „You're worrying me now, Xavier. What did he do?"

„He left us to settle some old scores with people out of Stryker's team and to find Sabretooth." It had always been a matter of time, when truth would come out. „He was caught and arrested."

„They cannot hold him."

„Stryker's team didn't only create him, Storm," Xavier shook his head, „they built him, so they also built precautions how to control him."

„You mean a prison?" It was outrageous that Xavier hadn't told her before. „For how long have you known that?! We have to get him out!", she shouted.

He didn't answer the first part of her question, but said „This is his war against a certain group of people. This is not our war. And I know he wouldn't want us to do that."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _In the holding cell_

„What damn anesthetic was it that brought you down like that?" Jack was curious. Although Logan tried to hide it, he saw and sensed what was going on behind his rigid facade.

„Anesthetic?", Logan raised an eyebrow and felt his anger trying to push out the claws. „Are you really that stupid or do you still believe every bedtime story the Colonel tells you?"

Jack ignored the insults. „No. That's why I'm asking."

Logan looked at the grenade in Jack's hands. „I hope they cleared the air inside here well enough so you won't get a headache … or anything worse and drop that thing."

„From what?"

„Sarin."

x.x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _Cerebro_

The past hours replayed before Xavier's and Storm's eyes, pacing quickly through the scenes. They found themselves again, standing in the middle of a white coated cell. First they saw him sitting at a blanket, in one corner of the room, as he suddenly jumped up and looked around, alarmed, searching the corners of the room for something that simply wasn't there.

„What is he doing?", Storm asked. She could see the picture but unlike Xavier, she had no access to emotions and sensations. That made it impossible to interpret the situation.

„They were filling the room with nerve gas."

A few moments later he broke down in the middle of the room. Two guards in ABC protection suits entered and fixated his wrists in special shackles, against the back wall of the room.

„What kind of a red line is this?", Storm asked, „the one parting the room in two?"

„A strong magnetic field parts the room. And keeps him quite immovable. Silence now.", Xavier reminded her, as they saw a man enter the room. He took a plastic chair, crossed the red line and sat down in front of the still unconscious Logan.

„Who is this?", Storm whispered.

„The interrogator. Jack Bauer."

„Why does he have a grenade in his hands?" An uneasy feeling overcame her. It could easily kill him if it went off so close.

„Security. The interrogator made them switch off the magnetic field so that Logan would talk to him."

They listened to Logan's and Jack's talk, eventually leading to the nerve gas.

Storm threw her hands up in horror - „we have to get him out of there, Xavier…" she breathed. „Now."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _in the holding cell_

„Stop kidding me.", Jack hissed at hi. „How would you know that?"

„ _You_ asked _me_.", Logan hissed back, „Then don't complain about the answer. Trust me, I know this smell." It wasn't the first time that he had smelled this sour odor. 1944. Germany. He had seen so many people around him die - back then he had sworn to himself that he'd never forget the smell of this gas.

Jack almost couldn't believe it. He had read the Wolverine's file several times by now and knew that the guy opposite him had been in Nazi controlled area in WWII. That made it at least plausible.

 _This is not right and you know it._ Xavier spoke.  
 _This is not right and I know it._ Jack thought. _I have to do something._

Logan wondered why his counterpart was so silent. Didn't he believe his story? Or did he believe it and now he tried to make sure that the air in this room had really been cleared?

 _We're going to get you out of there_ , Logan suddenly heard Xavier's voice inside his head.  
 _How?_ He asked back. The question almost answered itself. He followed Jack's eyes, to the shackles around his wrists. They could easily be opened up by him.

 _He will open up the cuff around you left arm, that's something that they won't see on the surveillance camera. He will drop the grenade. Kick it to the other side of the room and then attack him. They will switch on the magnetic field. It will keep the blast wave and the shrapnel away from you. The guard will confuse the controls and will switch off the magnetic field. I will guide you on your way out._

Logan tensed up as he saw Jack lean over to open up the shackle around his left hand. The surveillance camera was mounted behind Jack's back, so they couldn't see it on the outside that their own agent leant over and released the pin that kept the two parts of the mighty cuff around the Wolverine's left wrist. Slowly Logan let the claws come out, without making a single noise. A trace of bright red blood ran into the palm of his hand as the blades cut through his own flesh. He saw Jack remove the pin. It was time to act. Fast.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x  
 _Cerebro_

Strung to the breaking point, Storm watched his getaway on the images inside the cerebro. She heard Xavier's calm voice, saying left, straight ahead, left, left, right, upstairs… ultimately he was guiding Logan away from this place.

„We did the right thing.", she murmured.

.

.


	4. OUT OF EDEN

OUT OF EDEN

.

The way home was awful. Even more awful than the few seconds before the explosion, which he only vaguely remembered. After he had passed the gates of the military complex just outside of New York, he had thought that now it would get better. The Colonel's reproach was over, the shouting and screaming that had come over him in the moment that he had woken up in some bed in a med bay. But the job was finally over.

As he ran his hand over his cheek, he could still feel the bruise, and the bruise on his shoulder also unmistakably told him that it was there. The blast wave had hit him against the wall - it was still a mystery to him why they had both survived the explosion in that small room. Logan must have kicked the grenade away, back over the red line, before it went off, the magnetic field had kept the shrapnel away.  
Damn good reaction, he had to admit.

As the Colonel had questioned him, why he had let it come that far, he had had no answer. What the hell had happened…? Did he help the prisoner escape? What did he know about Logan's plans? He didn't know. There was a blackout where there should have been memories and reasonable thoughts. He remembered seeing his claws. He also remembered that the shackle around Logan's left arm had been open at one point.  
The Colonel had shouted at him, questioning him how this could have happened. Jack didn't know the answer. He hadn't told the Colonel anything. The blurred memories told him that he had been the one to open it up. Damnit. Why?

He parked the car in his garage and looked at his own image in the rear view mirror. What a sight he was. Once again, after so many times. Bruised and dazed. He pulled the keys out and told himself that it was good that this had finally come to an end. He didn't want to work for the military any more. Should have said no in the beginning. Wanted to see no-one of them. No fights, no guns, no grenades and above all no prisoners. The day had come on which he finally had to put up with the fact that he had turned into a terrible interrogator.

A sigh on his lips, he closed the electric garage door and turned on the light in the hallway.  
As he heard a noise. Outside or here in the house? Wasn't sure.  
His senses told him that there was something.

His gun drawn, he ran over to the nearest window, peaking outside. A van parked on the other street side. That one hadn't been there before, right? He rushed over to a window on the rear side, seeing a similar vehicle on the other street side, too.  
They were watching him. He felt his pulse speed up, as he crept back through his own hallway, to the garage, where he heard another sound.

Logan stared at the muzzle of Jack's gun which was now directed towards him. „Let it down, bub", he growled, „that thing won't help ya."

Jack slowly lowered his hand with the gun. He had seen the file. And the claws. It was really of no use against this guy. Part of him should have been frightened that there was an enemy in his house - one that he was helpless against. But all he had left now was the rage.

He stormed over to him, the gun still in his right hand, grabbed Logan by the collar and pushed him backwards, towards the nearest wall. „Who do you think you are?", he hissed, „You think you can just come around and ruin my whole life? They're covering every exit of the house, looking for you!" Right now he didn't even care that the man that he was holding at gunpoint and who was five inches taller than him could have killed him in the blink of a second with his claws.

„ _You_ let me escape.", Logan replied. His senses kept track of the gun in Jack's hand but he was a hundred percent sure that this gun wouldn't be used against him any time soon. The guy took risks - but he wasn't stupid. He'd never use the gun and admit to the agents on the outside what was really going on here.

„But _not_ into _my_ house!", Jack hissed back and let go of him after a last, determined push against the wall. „Stay down. I don't think they know you're here. Looks like they're just guessing. Otherwise they would have come in already." He opened a closet nearby and took out a holster, in which he fixed his gun to his belt. After walking around, looking out of every window, he came back into the garage. His heart was beating with so much agitation that he could hear his own pulse. Although he hadn't done anything strenuous, he was out of breath and sweating.

He glanced at Logan, who had kept his word and had settled to the ground peacefully, at the other side of the garage. He wore nothing else but the grey pants which they had put him in, in the prison. He hadn't shaved in weeks, his hair and beard a wild mess of black.

Jack fetched some old clothes, a T-shirt and flannel shirt from his bedroom closet and threw it over to him. „Get dressed. We need to get you away from here somehow. And then I'll have to do some veeery very good explaining."

Logan caught the clothes and rose again. „If you want me to, I'll just walk out the front door.", he growled. He wasn't afraid of some men with their stupid machine guns. It would be a slaughter, of course, but nothing that he hadn't done before. No pain that he couldn't stand.

Jack turned back, throwing an angry glance at him over his shoulder. „Don't you dare.", he hissed, „The Colonel's orders aren't dead or alive any more. He gave orders to blast your goddamn ass into pieces, even collateral damage is accepted. You might be hard to kill, but that means it's not impossible. The second they see you, this place will be turned to shreds." He turned back around and went over into the kitchen, pointing his hand into the hallway, „bathroom's that way."

The people in the black vans had settled to stay for a while. Jack kept an eye on them, the same as they kept their eyes on his house. He didn't know why the Colonel didn't just order them to storm the house and look for the Wolverine. Looked like they were not that sure about him being here and they didn't dare to mistrust one of their own officers. That was the only good sign.

A car pulled into this uncrowded street, the only car to arrive since the black vans had come. His attention was pulled to it as it came closer, although his house was the last one in the street. As he finally recognized the car, it drew a ‚no' from his lips, followed by a louder ‚NO' and in the end almost a scream. He started running, from the upstairs bedroom where he had been, looking down onto the street, jumped, more stumbled down the stairs taking three steps at a time.

Logan had heard him and came out of the bathroom as Jack passed him, running. „What…?", he wanted to ask, but Jack only wove his hand at him, telling him to stay inside the room. Not wanting to miss what was going on around here, he kept the door a bit open and watched how Jack hurriedly put the holster with the gun off his belt again, stashing it into the drawer next to the door before he hurriedly opened up. A woman was at door. Logan heard them arguing about a child. Jack's child?

 _You promised me to take her._  
 _It's not possible, really._  
 _You have to… No!_  
 _This is important to me. You promised!_  
A child's cries. _Look, now she's even… honey, no, come on._

The woman took the child off her shoulder and bluntly handed him the little girl. _I have to go. I'm late already, and I can't miss this interview, dad._ So the grand child.

She stormed away, leaving him back with the little girl.

Jack fought the urge to shout a lout damnit. Not here, in front of Teri. And not here, standing in the open door, where the people out of the van could see him. He slowly put the still crying girl down in front of him, trying not to let her see how frightened he was. The Colonel's men could storm the house any time, even worse, throw a bomb in through one of the windows and … looking at the little girl, he forced himself to stop thinking about it.

 _Everything alright, Jack?_ , she asked him. She could sense his tension. He'd have to do a better job hiding his thoughts.

 _Yah, everything alright_ , he hurriedly answered and gave her a little kiss onto her forehead, before he picked her up, took the little bag that Kim had left at his doorstep and lifted her up. He couldn't go back in. He just couldn't take that risk.

Logan stood in the doorframe of the bathroom, watching the scene. Jack, little Teri in his arms. He smelled the man's fear. This was not only the fear like before- now it was mere panic, as he carried the girl and looked back into the hallway, not knowing what to say. His view found Logan, who still stood in the doorframe of his bathroom, now shaved and dressed - and his eyes told a real story, beginning and ending with the words _you have to understand me, she's all I have._

„I'm sorry.", Jack inaudibly breathed, but sure that the mutant had heard it. He really was.

 _What's up grampa Jack?_ the little girl asked. She had heard his apology, too.

„Nothing.", he hurriedly murmured for an answer, before he pulled the door closed behind him and started to walk, carrying the girl and her little bag away with him.

Logan stared at the door. He was on his own again. Surrounded by a small army. Again.

.

.

.


	5. DEBRIS

DEBRIS

.

.

.

Jack took out his keys, after they threw him out of the windowless transporter, back onto the street in front of his house.  
Just a few hours ago, they had considered him being one of them, but it had changed rapidly. Everything had changed rapidly. They had taken him in, this time it was him who they had sat into that cell, for interrogation, accusing him to having helped the Wolverine escape.

After the vehicle had driven off and he had turned around, the keys almost slipped out of his hand. He wouldn't need them anymore, anyway.

The front door to his house stood open. Somebody had completely destroyed it, like the windows on the lower floor.  
A lump in his throat, he stepped closer, walking up his own driveway. It looked like a grenade had exploded on the porch, another one just inside the hallway. As he stepped over the debris of what had been his home, he felt like he had lost everything.

He had only been a hundred yards away from the house, still carrying little Teri, when he had heard the grenades go off. The little girl hadn't understood why he started to run, and she had understood even less why a bunch of men had surrounded them, pointing their guns at them, shouting at them.  
He had tried to shield her from everything. And even though the situation had been so bad, he had only been glad that the army had found him first - and not that mutant monster.

He closed the remains of what had once been his front door. The area around the lock and handle was missing anyway.

Everything on the lower floor was destroyed.  
Sure that the house was empty, he went into the living room and didn't even care to search the house first.  
Logan had disappeared long ago. He wouldn't be back - that guy deserved a lot of attributes, but he for sure wasn't stupid.

Jack sat down at the couch. The glass table in front of him was shattered, too. A full platoon of men had stormed in here, shooting around, reaching nothing.

They had taken the dead bodies with them, but he still saw their blood on the rug. Three parallel lines, must be the marks of the claws. They had dug into the wooden walls, even left scratches at the stone walls, with splash patterns in red between them.

He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands.  
He should have never said yes to help them interrogate Logan. As they had asked him, it had felt like an easy job, one without any possible implications.

But now his whole life was suddenly turned upside down.

Kim had had to pick to up little Teri at the military base.  
He'd seen her for a few moments only. Had caught a slap in his face from her. He had deserved it. Bringing Teri into such a danger was inexcusable.

He sat in the dark and wondered how he could rebuild this all. Kim's trust. The house. It would be a hard piece of work.

And finally he stood up and started to pick up the pieces.

.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

.

"Storm is raging.", Rogue told him.

"About what?" Logan downed the third whiskey since he had arrived here. It was his secret meeting place. And Marie was the only personal connection which he still had to the Xavier institute. He wanted to see nobody else.  
That the professor was sneaking around in his head was already outside his comfort zone.

"About how they treated you there. She's a warrior, Logan, just like you. Taking every chance she can get, to fight."

He mused about what she had said, and finally, he came to a conclusion. "That has to wait."

"What has to wait?"

"Revenge on that army base." He took the bottle and refilled his glass, "First I have a bone to pick with someone."

Rogue sighed as she leant back. "I see" She could imagine. "The one you told me about?"

 _Yeah._ The fourth and fifth shot went down but they hardly showed an effect. Sometimes, he drank to drown out the pain from a few new wounds from those everlasting fights he got in to. But all wounds from his last encounter had healed, hours ago. A bunch of bullets in his torso, two or three in the arms, another one his left thigh.  
He didn't even know how many men he had killed this time. But it had been _them_ to attack.

Bauer had left the house. He knew it all the way long that they were under surveillance.  
And ten minutes later, they had attacked.

"I'm sure he sold me out.", he murmured, looking at Rogue, "He left the house like an abject coward, ten minutes later they already attacked."

Rogue understood how he felt like. Whenever Logan had decided to kill somebody, nobody could stop him. Not even she, although she probably knew him best. "Won't take you long, will it?", she asked, "What do we do then?"

For the first time in weeks, Logan found himself thinking about the future again. Making plans was something that he wasn't used to. Maybe that was why he always fell back to his standard plan: "We could make a trip to Canada."

A little laughter escaped Rogue's lips. _Okay,_ she laughed.  
She'd heard him say this answer for so many times. She had come with him on his trips to 'Canada' for so many times - they hadn't even made it there, half the times, getting caught up somewhere for some reason, in the middle of the way.  
But she had loved each one of these trips.

Logan shoved a fifty on the table and took the bottle with him as they left the bar.

.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

.

Picking up the pieces of what was left of his life was something that he was - sadly - used to.  
He had taken off his jacket and shirt, lighted up a few candles because the electricity also didn't work any more, and picked up one piece after the other, bringing them out onto the front porch, stuffing them into large plastic bags and tons.

He was halfway through, with the bloody things and the shattered furniture.

Scrubbing the blood away from the floor and the walls, repainting the walls and covering up the bullet holes and claw marks would take another few days.  
But he was determined to do this as quick as possible. He had to, if he wanted to regain Kim's trust that he didn't only live a life full of violence and immediate danger. How she he prove to her that being with him was no danger? Saying this, standing in a living room thats walls were covered by blood patterns.

He had just finished stuffing another garbage bag, as he heard a noise in the back of the house.  
Just to be sure, he took his gun with him, as he went back into the dark house, hiding behind a halfway broken down cupboard. Burglars, maybe. People must have seen the unlocked house.

His gun drawn, Jack crouched down. He could hardly see anything in the dark.  
Somebody had entered through the rear door.  
He heard the ones footsteps, as he strode over the pieces of broken glass which still lay at the floor.

Logan sniffed into the darkness. He could smell that guy.  
But he smelt no fear. Good. So he wasn't expecting him - at least he thought.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!", Jack roared and jumped up, his weapon drawn, as his enemy got into sight.

Logan jumped, seeing the gun pointed at him.  
Jack jumped, realizing who it was. That gun was useless.

Still, he kept it drawn, like a shield - a useless one.  
"You could be halfway down to Mexico already. Why are you still around?", he asked.

"I'm not leaving the country. I'm not a goddamn coward like _you_.", Logan growled, and unsheated his claws. He heard Jack's heartbeat speed up. "Put that toy gun down. What do you wanna do with it anyway?", he laughed sarcastically, coming a few steps closer. Now he could smell his enemy's fear, slowly rising.

Jack unwillingly yielded back. He had got 18 shots. To stop somebody who couldn't be stopped at all. Not even a full platoon of men had managed to.  
Running was senseless.  
He aimed, as well as this was possible, in the darkness. No more talking. If he wanted to survive this, he needed to pull the trigger before the Wolverine attacked.

.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

.

Rogue heard the shot. She glanced at the house but decided to wait in the car. _Pliers, again,_ she just thought. She'd seen Logan get shot at for so many times that it didn't bother her any more.  
The first few times, she had almost cried when she'd seen him stumble out of a bar (where he was most likely to get into a fight) with a bullet or two in his body.

She could still imagine his pain which he felt now, but he had downed the rest of the bottle before he had gone into Bauer's house. He had expected to get into a firefight there.

She looked at her wristwatch. Three minutes had passed since the shot. Time to get nervous. Some of the neighbors had called the police for sure. If they wanted to get out of here without another fight, they had to be quick.

After another minute, she decided to get out and get Logan. Sometimes, the animal inside him took over, after a kill. He'd stand there, examining the dead body like it was his prey.  
Cautiously, she pushed the back door of the house open, silently asking "Logan?"

When she found him, she shrieked.

The hunter stood there, looking down on his prey - but it was Logan, who lay on the ground!  
It was too late to run. The man with the gun had seen her.

Jack eyed the girl at the back door. She looked like eighteen, twenty at most. A child, compared to her companion. _Another mutant, for sure,_ he thought, wondering what her mutation might be. She didn't run away. Instead, she slowly crept closer.  
It had been helpful to know Logan's file. Knowing about the enemy's mutation was the key to winning the fight against them.

Jack turned away from Logan, making sure that he was still out, and aimed his gun at the girl. "So, what's your speciality?", he coldly asked her.

"I... I'm not a figher" she stammered, showing him the empty palms of her gloved hands. "See?"

"I asked you what your mutation was."

Not letting the enemy know about one's mutation was the key to winning, Rogue knew. "I'm a telepath", she stammered, lying, trying to look like an innocent child. Wasn't that hard.

Jack was still sceptic. But he let her come closer. He aimed his gun back at Logan who he still considered the bigger danger. "So, how long does it take your _friend_ to recover from a head shot?"

"You didn't get a bullet into his head. His skull-"

"-Adamantium, I read the file.", Jack looked at the bloody mess in front of their feet, "But his eyes aren't." The blood was already vanishing from Logan's face. He could practically see him recover. It wouldn't stop him for long. He could repeat this for an indefinite number of times.  
The girl came closer. She didn't look like a danger to him - just a little girl who worriedly crouched down beneath that monster and softly took his head into her hands, lifting one of his eyelids.  
Unobtrusively, she took off one of her gloves, like if she were to stroke over Logan's cheek.

"Get away from him.", Jack ordered, "Get up." He saw the Wolverine stir. The unsheated claws shone in the dim light.  
Once more, he took an aim at Logan's left eye, to keep him down with a headshot for another few minutes.  
He saw the girl, rising obediently, her hands now both bare - and he didn't realize that the bigger danger was not the unconscious carnivore, but the innocent girl who stood, no more than three feet away from him. Silently, she sized up his naked upper body.

Right as Logan stirred again, short before waking up, Jack leant over, to shoot at him once more.

Rogue jumped forward, pressing both her hands firmly onto his skin.  
She felt the pull immediately - sucking up his energy, his feelings, thoughts and the memories.

She had never experienced such pain before.

Screaming, she pushed him away, trying to get away from his bare skin again.

Logan jumped to his feet. He had just recovered from - ? he was clueless how he had gotten into such a situation. His senses led his attention to his companion, sitting at the floor, crying. "Marie!", he worriedly knelt down to her, careful, not to hurt her inadvertently with the claws.

Bauer lay in front of her.

"What did he do to you?", Logan hissed. _He's gotta pay anyway,_ he thought, _but I can make it a little more painful._

"Nothing", Rogue stammered, between her sobs, watching Logan's claws near Bauer's throat. "Logan, stop"

He turned back to her. "Why?"

She couldn't put it into words. The thoughts and memories of that man overwhelmed her. "He didn't sell you out." She felt like it was _her_ , running away from this house, a little child in her hands, trying to get away from the Wolverine.  
"We have to think this through.", she added, trying to tap into Bauer's memories of the subsequent interrogation, "He knows a lot about that military base. Might help."

Logan had a hard time to calm down enough not to slit this man's throat right here and now.

Again, his Marie implored him not to do this.

He trusted her.  
In such situations, she always knew better. She wasn't blinded by the thirst for blood which was in his nature.

He sheathed his claws again and then tore the lifeless body with him, on the run from the already approaching police sirens.

.

.

.

.

 _Took me long to update, sorry.  
_ _I'll be faster from now on!_


	6. UNUSUAL HUNTERS

UNUSUAL HUNTERS

.

.

.

Jack awoke, his his head dizzy, his back aching.  
He noticed that his hands were bound to something, in a quite uncomfortable position.

He tried to think back, what had brought him here. He only remembers standing in his hallway, about to shoot the Wolverine once more. Then a sharp flash of pain, and the next thing was already waking up here, lying on the floor of a cheap motel room, his wrists bound to the upper end of a radiator that wasn't even switched on. It was cold in here, wearing only a pair of jeans.

The TV was on, showing a football game.

He looked around and found Logan, sitting on the bed, watching the game, a bottle of beer in his hands. That mutant didn't even care whether he was awake or not, even though he must have noticed him waking up.

Slowly, Jack pulled himself up into a sitting position. Logan kept watching the game. Took a sip of beer.

Jack looked around, but didn't find that girl who had been in his house, too.

As Logan still didn't pay any attention to his captive, he asked him "Why am I here?"

Logan drank a bit more. "Sounded like she wanted a pet. Now she has one." It had been Rogue's idea not to kill Bauer. Whatever... he could still get rid of him later.

A pet. What a disgrace, being called like that. "Beware, some of them might bite.", he hissed, pulling at the rope around his wrists.

For the first time, Logan turned his head, sneering. He let out his claws of his right hand, delighted in seeing his captive jerk at hearing the metallic noise. "Won't take me long to break you of that." Showing them was often enough.  
He turned back to the football game. 4th and 12.

Even Jack took the few seconds and watched the play. He couldn't change his miserable situation anyway.  
1st and 10. He turned back to Logan. "Where are we?", he asked him. As far as he realized, there were no scratches on his body, no three parallel bloody marks, no single stab wound at all.

"motel room." Logan thought of knocking him out just so he could watch the game in silence. Rogue should have been back a while ago, with something to eat.

"How did I get here?", Jack asked again.

Logan turned his head, saying nothing. Wouldn't that guy understand his mad view? Why did he keep begging to get hurt?

"Where's your girl?"

Now that was enough. Heatedly, Logan put the beer down on the bedside table and got up, wordlessly walking over to Jack. He looked down on him.

Jack knew that this guy could kill him within the blink of an eye. But something had made this guy abstain from doing it - at least so far.  
"Guess you ain't allowed to hurt your lady's pet, huh?"

WAHM.  
Logan rammed his knee into Jack's chest. "Guess I am.", he remarked.

Jack gasped. He fought for air. This blow had been harder than anything he'd ever experienced. And yet it had looked like Logan hadn't even used all his power.  
He coughed, trying to figure out if one of his ribs was broken now. They all hurt, immensely.

Logan took his bottle of beer again, finding it almost empty. He took another one out of the fridge and sat down on the bed again, without so much as looking at his captive. He could smell him, hear every breath and groan that man made... no need to look after him.  
He turned back to the game, just because he didn't want to talk. Almost breaking his chest had hopefully made that point clear.  
3rd and 5.  
As he had bound that man's hands to the radiator, he had noticed the scars on his back and chest. He knew how all kinds of cruelties looked like. They were lash marks, acid burns and some deep cuts which had healed without getting any medical attention.  
1st and 10 again. At least he could watch the game in silence now. Bauer didn't speak any more to the beginning of the next quarter.  
But the longer he sat there, knowing that his captive was awake, Logans curiosity grew, wanting to know what had mangled him that way.

Rogue still wasn't back. She had left an hour ago, taken the car with her to find a place to get some take-away burgers. They were somewhere in the outskirts of the city, where they had never been before. It could take some time to find a good place.

"What happened to you?", Logan finally asked.

Jack lifted his head, tiredly. He hated the position he was in and he swore to himself not to be cooperative. "A damn mutant tied me up.", he growled, giving him the same nonsense as an answer that the other had given him before.

It drew half of a smile off Logan's face. Part of him admired him for that answer. He obviously had no will to live - and in combination with that, no fear of being hurt again.  
"I meant the scars on your back."

"That's none of your concern."  
Those wounds had healed off years ago. He hadn't really ever spoken to anyone about them. And for sure, he'd not start now.

Logan noticed how Jack shifted his position, leaning his back against the radiator, almost as if he wanted to hide it. Must have been one hell of a nightmare to go through whatever he'd gone through.  
He turned back to the game. The defensive end and the quarterback were almost getting into a fight after the quarterback had gotten sacked.  
Rogue still wasn't back. He could still ask her about the wounds on Bauer's back. She had absorbed him, she would know.

And suddenly, a very bad feeling came over him: She had absorbed that man. Getting hurt like that. The thoughts. That pain.

Years ago, after she had absorbed the those 15 years of his life that he could remember at that time, she had changed a lot. She'd had his nightmares, she had lived through his pain, through all the thins that Strkyer had done to him and that had still been burnt into his memories.

Logan glanced at Jack. That man was a big mess, through and through, and _his_ Marie had him in her head now!  
He got up and went over to him. "How did you get those?", he asked him again, pointing at the scars on his back.

"None of your concern.", Jack looked away, over to the game again.

"It is.", Logan added. "She's got you in her head now."

 _In her head?_ He didn't understand a word of this mutant stuff. "Poor girl, then.", he just remarked, watching the game.

And another cold shiver ran down Logan's back.

.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

.

Rogue stopped the car in front of the gates to a large building. The burgers that she'd bought lay on the front passenger's seat, but they had gotten cold long ago. She hadn't even cared to eat her own one.

Something had told her to come here, she hadn't been able to fight that feeling.

She felt like she needed to do this, to go in there and kill somebody.

After all he had done to her.

She looked at her wristwatch, the one that she'd taken off a few hours ago.. to put it back on with the cock-face now on the inner side of her wrist. It was six in the morning. Too early.

Finally, she settled into the seat, grabbed her burger and decided to wait until the people who worked here would come. The one she was waiting for always came at ten minutes to eight, staying until ten minutes past five.

The rain washed over the windshield, blurring the view at the golden sign next to the entrance.  
She didn't need to read it, anyway, because she already knew what was written on it: _EMBASSY OF CHINA._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

.

"I asked you half an hour ago how I came here."

"She touched you."

"And?"

"That's her mutation. She touches people and draws their life out. First, their feelings, then their memories, followed by their mutations and finally their life force."

He could hardly believe that there was somebody else out there now, with his mind... with everything he knew, all the national security stuff, all the access codes - it was a perfect mutation, for anybody in the intelligence sector.  
But finally, he realized what made Logan so protective of her, leading him to asking about the scars on his back: she hadn't only gotten the access codes and national security matters. She also had the memories now, the ones that he had once tried to kill with drugs, and also those of China... losing Audrey... being tortured, beaten up, lashed and left to rot in a small cell. The memories of how this country had treated him when he came back: taking away all he still had, making him a fugitive. Being interrogated. The infection. The everlasting therapy to get back on his feet, at least somehow.

He wanted nobody to have to live through that.

"Where is she now?", Jack asked. He saw Logan pacing around in the room, restlessly. Jack hadn't yet found out what their relation was, but the Wolverine seemed to be very protective of her. Right now, he looked close to panicking.

"She went to get something to eat, but that was more than an hour ago.", Logan began, "She should have been back long ago."

 _What would somebody do who lives through my thoughts?_ Jack asked himself. He couldn't answer it. It had taken him years to fight down his rage at everything, the lust to kill and the craving for revenge. At one point, he had given it up. There was no sense in taking revenge and holding on to the fight. He had found out long ago, that if he wanted to bring peace into his life, he needed to let go of the past. If she had all his thoughts, then she'd realize this as well.

"Who would you kill if you had the chance to?", Logan asked him.

Jack looked up. "No-one."

"Really?" He didn't believe him. Somebody who had gone through whatever had happened to him must have some outstanding scores.

"Yes." Jack sighed. "I'm not like you, Logan. Whenever I do something, things have _consequences_." He put a stress on that last word, because it was the most important one. He would have enough people on the list to kill. But he didn't do it because of the consequences. "The world is different when you get old and face your own death or whatever worse there can be. It looks different from when you live nearly forever and can't be harmed by anything."

Logan stopped pacing about.  
Marie had them both in her head: The Wolverine, sure of nothing would have consequences. And now Bauer, whose past, paired with the Wolverine, could finally break free.  
"It does, and that's the problem." Logan grabbed his jacket and put it on, and then threw the other one over to Jack, the one that he'd given him before.

He knelt down in front of his captive. "She could be your revenge trip now."  
He needed Bauer's help to find her. That man was the only one to know where she would be. Looking into his eyes, he wasn't so sure, if he would help him at all. He hesitated with untieing his hands.

Jack saw him hesitate. "I won't kill you.", he remarked, halfway smiling.

"Sure.", Logan shook his head, "I won't ever find her without you, and I'll make sure you won't run away, even if I have to cut off your legs for that." He didn't trust that man, after all. Xavier had told him he was a fighter. It's been a while since an ordinary human being had brought him down in a fight. Bauer had been the first one in years.  
Slowly, Logan reached out and cut the knot around Jack's wrists apart.  
He expected hell to break loose, but it didn't.

Jack reached out for his old jacket and put it on. "If she's on my revenge trip, she will eventually fuck up _my_ life with it. Can't let that happen.", he murmured and stood up. "Where's my gun?"

"No way.", Logan spoke. "We're gonna do this my way."

.

.


	7. SAVING THE DEVIL

SAVING THE DEVIL

.

.

.

Logan looked out into the dark, while Jack was driving. The buildings raced by quite fast.  
"How far out are we?"

Jack knew the way by heart. "Ten minutes." He looked at his wristwatch. Half past seven. The sun was just about to rise. A light red glow on the horizon was not quite strong enough to bright up the surroundings, but it told him how late it was.  
He knew exactly how late it was. He could tell from the sun and the twilight.  
So many days had he come this way, at the exact same time. Seeing the run rise in the background, while he was waiting for Cheng to show up. The monster always came in a limousine, with a driver and another man, possibly his guard. Showing up at ten to eight, heading straight into the building.

It had taken him a few months to get into this ritual. He had found him by accident, one day, though he had hoped never to see this man again.

When he had first seen the monster, he had almost panicked. He hadn't even been able to put the anger in words that he had towards this man. The things that Cheng had done to Audrey weighed even more than the pain that the monster had caused him.  
The wish to kill was there. Strong. It had been there from the first second on.

He had gone for months, suppressing this wish. He had given up fighting for good, after what had happened in Washington DC a year ago. He had managed to survive that day. Kim was back in his life, and even little Teri. That was worth more than revenge. He had sworn to himself not to mess up his life again, even if it meant that Cheng wouldn't die from his hands.

It was useless to come here almost every morning, watching the monster.

While driving, Jack glanced over at the glove compartment. One of his guns still had to be in there- Logan hadn't checked when they had boarded the car.  
Not that he wanted to shoot Logan - but it was the gun that he'd always take out when he was watching Cheng.

 _Knowing,_ that he could kill him. That the monster's death was just one move of his hand away.

It brought no satisfaction to keep Cheng alive.  
Every other morning in which he didn't just get out of his car to kill him, he felt like he had saved his life. At the same time this felt like failing.

He slowed down the car and looked at his wristwatch again, saying "We're here early. We've got ten minutes." to Logan. "It's just round the corner, right side."

Going at a crawl, he turned right at the next crossroads. The building of the Chinese Embassy appeared on their left, the massive white stone walls, the iron gates and the gold colored sign that said 'Embassy of China'. He couldn't read it from over here, but he knew every word by heart. He had spent hours and hours reading it.

A single car was parked on the roadside- Logan's old Jeep.

"Slowly", he said to Jack, as they approached the vehicle, stopping twenty yards behind it. "She's there.", he murmured. Marie. He could smell her from over here, just had to open up the door an inch. Anger. Bloodlust. He was just too familiar with that.

Silently they both watched the other car for a few moments.

"What would you do, if you were in her position?", Logan finally asked.

"I come here almost every morning.", Jack sighed as an answer. For a second he glanced at the glove compartment, then he turned to Logan, "I don't do anything when I come here."

The Wolverine slightly shook his head. "I don't believe a word you say. You don't come here to do nothing." He was not good at reading thoughts - but he could read his opponent's features very well. Suppressed anger. Old pain. After all, he had seen the scars on him. The Professor had told him that this man was _very much_ like him. Then it just couldn't be that he came here to see his worst enemy and didn't do anything.

"I can't do anything.", Jack murmured, turning back. His eyes left the glove compartment again. The gun was of no use. And not needed. "It would be murder.", he added.

"And what would you do, if you could?", Logan probed him, again.

Dismissively, Jack shook his head, saying "nothing", as he got ready to get out.

Logan grabbed his arm and held him back. "If you hurt her, you die."

Their eyes met for a second.

"I don't care about any of these people that you're obviously too afraid to kill.", Logan made clear. For him, this was about Marie. Nothing else mattered to him.

Jack ripped his arm away from Logan's grab and got out. They had five minutes left before Cheng would show up. He wanted to be away from here again when the monster would arrive.

Slowly they approached the car that Rogue sat in, Jack on the driver's seat, Logan on the other.

She didn't even realize that anyone was coming. Her view was fixated at the other end of the street, because she knew from Jack's memories that Cheng would always approach from north, in a white limousine with a driver.

When she saw Jack appear next to her window, she jerked and let out a scream.

He stood there, saying nothing, doing nothing, just looking at her.

She stared back at him, unsure what to do. Go for him? Assault him? She didn't feel like doing so. Open the window and talk to him? What for. There was nothing he could say that she didn't already know. Touch him? No, it hurt too much.

Leaning away from him, she felt the cold metal of the gun which lay on the front passenger's seat touch her skin. Hurriedly she grabbed it and aimed it at him, shouting "Go away!"

Jack stayed there and slightly shook his head. "No. ... Put the gun down."

She couldn't believe it. Why was he saying this? There was no reason to try and stop her! "Get out of my way!", she shouted at him again. He should help her - not stop her.

Again, he just shook his head, while Logan crept closer on the other side. He just needed to distract her for a bit more time, until the Wolverine would be in a position to grab her.

"There's no sense in doing this.", Jack told her.

"There is.", she hissed back. "He has to pay."

"That won't make anything undone.", he hissed back. She really wanted to go for Cheng.  
A car appeared at the horizon - two crossroads and two traffic lights away. Damn it, that was the monster. He was here a few minutes early today. It was time to get away from here, time to rip that gun out of her hands and get off this street. Not for anything in the world did he want to still be here, out on the street, when Cheng would arrive.  
Logan had already opened up the right rear door and had positioned himself at the rear seats to pull her away from the steering wheel.

"It'll make peace. You're not the only one out there who he has hurt!", she angrily told him, while she had him centered on the iron sights. She had also seen the car arrive. She knew what car it was. It was time to choose between targets.

"It won't make any her better if he's dead!", Jack growled. She was talking about Audrey. This damn little girl had invaded his whole life, it seemed. It was highly discomforting to see how many details she knew. Just everything.

"You owe her!", she shouted back at him, unsure whether to aim the gun at him or already at the car.

He saw that she wasn't very used to handling a gun. Maybe she had stolen his memories, but not his skills.  
Logan was also in position now, he saw.  
Right as Cheng's car crossed the last traffic light, Jack dashed forward to open the door to the car. She was so focused on him that she didn't even realize that Logan's hands grabbed her from behind and tore her out of the seat. Screaming all the way, she fought to get free again, but he held her upper and lower arms so tight that she could neither touch him nor get a hold of the gun again that had fallen out of her hands.

Jack jumped into the car, started it and stepped onto the gas pedal. After only a few seconds they passed the white limousine which drove into the other direction, on the other street side.  
He didn't dare look left. There was this one in a thousand possibility that he'd get a glimpse of Cheng's face - and that was unbearable right now.

 _You owe her!,_ he heard the girl on the back seats shout at him, while the Wolverine tried his best not to hurt her too much while holding her down.  
 _He has to pay!  
Coward!_

She was so right with every word that she said. Cheng had to pay. He didn't deserve to live. Every second that he was still breathing was one too much. How should he ever look into Audrey's eyes again, telling her that he had had the chance to kill him and hadn't done it?

He tried to focus on the street and not to listen. Damn it, why couldn't Logan just make her shut up?

 _You owe her!_

It was too much to take.

A few miles away, he abruptly stopped the car on the roadside and jumped out.

For a moment, Logan let go of Rogue's body and jumped out, too. "Where are you going?", he shouted, his claws out.

Jack said nothing and kept walking, just away from here.

In the few moments in which Logan didn't pay enough attention, Rogue managed to push past him, running after Jack. "How can you look at yourself in the mirror after so many times you spared his life?", she shouted at him.

He turned around to her, but kept yielding back, knowing how much the touch of her hands hurt.

She slowed down, too, when they were only a few yards apart any more. "You have to make this monster pay.", she said, silently this time, looking into a pair of eyes that was filled with sorrow.

"It won't make anything better.", he silently answered. "Stop messing up my life."

Eventually, she stopped walking towards him, and he stopped yielding away. "I'm trying to fix it."

"This is not the way to fix anything.", Jack sighed. He finally got back at least a part of his composure. "Is this what you call fixing things? Killing everyone who ever hurt you?"

She replied nothing for a while. Logan finally came over to this side of the street as well, standing protectively behind her, even though that was in no way necessary. That guy was unarmed while she could kill him with one touch of her hands.

"Let's go", he whispered into her ear.

"You have to take revenge.", she said to Jack, trying to appeal to his honor.

But he just shook his head, saying, "No, I won't. Stop messing up my life. Let me go."

Logan glanced at Jack. Actually, he was okay with letting him go. He had wanted to kill him first, but Marie had been right all the time. He was no danger. He hadn't been the one to torture him- he had even helped him get out of that military compound. He didn't want to have a captive. That would only slow them down for no benefit at all.  
"Come on", he silently said to her, softly pulling her away, to get going.

Reluctantly she let him do so, glancing back at Jack once more. Looking into his eyes, she could see the hurt in them. She knew everything. She knew how that guy Cheng looked like. How he had treated him. She knew about Audrey. The state that she was in, now.  
"You should be ashamed of yourself", she remarked, once more, as she finally turned away, leaving him back alone.

.

.


End file.
